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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23636929">Clear View</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dr4conianlaw/pseuds/Dr4conianlaw'>Dr4conianlaw</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kamen Rider Fourze</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ace Spectrum Characters, Friends to Lovers, M/M, spoilers for post fourze</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:55:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,547</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23636929</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dr4conianlaw/pseuds/Dr4conianlaw</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kengo gets glasses, and discovers something inconvenient.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kisaragi Gentarou/Utahoshi Kengo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Best Matched Zine 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Clear View</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>'whoa sara thats a lot more fics from you then normal???' actually! this one has been written for awhile, as it was my piece in the Best Matched zine! which has had it's digital release now, so here you go!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>By Kengo’s best judgement, the trouble began with the glasses.</p>
<p>Reading had required more and more squinting- and eventually, behold, he needed to get reading glasses. Apparently his mysterious copy space genetics couldn’t even come through for him in the realm of eyesight. (Of course not.)</p>
<p>That said, being honest, he didn’t actually care. Sure, glasses. And not even ones he’d have to wear all the time, yet. He couldn’t think of any real reason to mind, he’d just adjust to them at it’d be over with.</p>
<p>And then Gentaro had seen them, and he had beamed in that too-bright way of his, and said “Wow, you look handsome in those!”</p>
<p>He-- “...What?”</p>
<p>“They really suit you! You look good with glasses, it’s like they just match who you are, all smart looking and stuff!”</p>
<p>...Ok, now it was sounding more like he was being called a dweeb. Which was far more reasonable, it made much more sense. Much more reasonable of a thing that Gentaro would say, ‘wow you nerd!’ framed in a complementary way.</p>
<p>So the burning of his cheeks could <em>shut up now</em>, actually.</p>
<p>And the moment passed, and the world righted itself, and he pushed the memory from his mind for the rest of the day.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>+++</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Except, of course, Kengo was a worrier by nature, so come that night and he was replaying the incident in his head over and over. And, suddenly, more important than any complements Gentaro <em>may or may not have paid</em>, was the way Kengo had reacted.</p>
<p>Handsome? Why would he care this much? It’s not like…</p>
<p>Kengo didn’t care about romance. That felt like a solid fact that he knew about himself, had known about himself for a long time. He just didn’t get it, didn’t register it, would watch those around him be swept up in it and just look on, puzzled.</p>
<p>And it didn’t really feel like the ridiculous posturing his younger self had gone through in his avoidance of friendship. Romance wasn’t something he was avoiding, it was something he was… outside of.</p>
<p>Except now he was thinking about it, and the idea of a romance, in the context of Gentaro, was… Nice? It was nice. It felt fitting, like if it was going to be anyone, it felt right that it would be him.</p>
<p>...Which was alarming, because the idea was completely unrealistic nonsense. If only for the obvious reason that, if there was anyone who seemed to share his sheer confusion towards romance, <em>it was Gentaro</em>.</p>
<p>It felt like a bad joke. Or just punishment for his hubris, maybe.</p>
<p>He spent too long turning over the whole ridiculous situation in his head. But in the end all he could think was, if there was anything to do about this, it was obvious: Absolutely nothing.</p>
<p>That would be safest, after all. The entire idea was far too awkward, best to just let it be forgotten. Surely it could be, eventually.</p>
<p>It was either that, or, maybe he should make sure that there really was no way he could manage to get to space and the Presenters at this point, so he could really never think about any of these feelings ever again!</p>
<p>(This was the kind of fantasy that was nice to return to, every so often, with the knowledge that it’d never happen, and would be miserable if it actually did.)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>+++</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And so things continued for months, and in the end it turned out to be equal parts surprisingly easy (their routine was so comfortable) and... actual torture.</p>
<p>Kengo wasn’t entirely sure if it was just because he wasn’t quite paying attention before, but much to his dismay, the offhand complements from Gentaro just kept on continuing.</p>
<p>(But it’s not like the problem there was Gentaro’s. Saying dumb things was Gentaro’s speciallty, and something Kengo could hardly fault him for. Kengo was the one who was <em>dwelling.</em>)</p>
<p>It really should have just been kept his own personal, embarrassing secret. Except ‘secret’ and ‘his friends’ weren’t really concepts that mixed, so at least half of them knew by now. And being fair to himself, it’s not like he had <em>told</em> Miu or JK, they had their own means of figuring it out.</p>
<p>It wasn’t entirely bad? Actually, it <em>was</em> entirely bad in JK’s case, which had been JK shooting finger guns at him and saying: “Not really my type, but good for you!”</p>
<p>But Miu had been... Sympathetic? She didn’t bug him about it, but had also given him a comforting pat and sigh once after <em>Gentaro</em> <em>had called him ‘hot’ out of nowhere because Gentaro had no comprehension of the effect of the nonsense he spews.</em></p>
<p>And Yuki…</p>
<p>Yuki he had told, which was a Mistake.</p>
<p>He had told her, because he wanted to vent about what an impossible situation it was to someone who’d understand just how impossible the inherent nature of Gentaro made it. She, somehow, missed the ‘impossible’ part, and had instead spent the last few months insisting to Kengo that he should just walk into inevitable doom.</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p><b>hayabusa...2!!!:</b> im warning you, whats gonna happen at this rate is</p>
  <p>one day you’re gonna be old and grey and you’ll probably have tenure</p>
  <p>and you’re gonna look over at gentaro</p>
  <p>and i feel like he won’t age as fast but he’ll probably have like salt n pepper sideburns or smthing?</p>
  <p>but anyways!! you’re gonna look over at him and you’re gonna think about how long you’ve known him</p>
  <p>and suddenly a wave of melancholy will hit you</p>
  <p>and you’re gonna curse your younger self for being such a coward and not taking more chances</p>
  <p>and that’s!! just going to be your life!! just wistful regret forever!!</p>
  <p><b>kengo:</b> ...Okay? Fine.</p>
  <p><b>hayabusa...2!!!:</b> what!! no!! not fine!!!</p>
</blockquote><p>(A pause, with the ‘hayabusa...2!!! is typing...’ indicator going on and off several times.)</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p><b>hayabusa...2!!!:</b> ok i see what my problem was here</p>
  <p>instead of impressing the urgency of this situation on you</p>
  <p>i have appealed to your dreams of being old and boring :/</p>
  <p><b>kengo:</b> A fatal flaw.</p>
  <p><b>hayabusa...2!!!:</b> you don’t even have the decency to pretend otherwise… you nerd</p>
</blockquote><p>Anyways. What an objectively terrible betrayal from a dear friend.</p>
<p>Still, besides all of that, it was fine. Awkward, maybe, but at least he could feel safe in the idea that he could keep this up indefinitely. Gentaro, find out about this stupid crush? No. No way.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>+++</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What Kengo hadn’t counted on, he later realized, that as romantically oblivious as Gentaro was,<em>he very much wasn’t friendship oblivious.</em></p>
<p>“...Hey, you doing okay?”</p>
<p>How Kengo was doing at the moment asked, was brooding over how casually Gentaro hand slung his arm over his shoulder earlier, and how nice it had been. This was an answer he absolutely could not provide. “Fine. Why?”</p>
<p>Gentaro’s face was scrunched up in a way that suggested he believed that there was a direct correlation between scrunched-ness, and appearing thoughtful. “It’s just, you’ve been kind of. I dunno. Weird. Not just today, for awhile! And more than normal Kengo weird, too!”</p>
<p>Kengo raised an eyebrow at Gentaro. “...You’ve assigned a kind of weird that’s normal for me?”</p>
<p>“Yeah!” Wow, what a shameless response!</p>
<p>Gentaro continued, however, unremorseful. “But, really! Something’s not ok. What kind of a friend would I be if I couldn’t tell when my friend was down?”</p>
<p>‘<em>My friend</em>’... Ah. Oh no.</p>
<p>That was exactly the problem, wasn’t it? Kengo couldn’t risk wanting this other, different thing, with something so important at stake. Gentaro’s friendship was too much to have at stake, too big a piece of his heart, and if Kengo was reckless enough to risk damaging it, risk Gentaro shying away, risk losing his friend…</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>...Wait.</p>
<p>This entire scenario suddenly wasn’t sounding much like Gentaro at all.</p>
<p>Kengo was muttering to himself now. “Right… I shouldn’t be so worried. It’s <em>you</em> after all, we’ll still be friends, even if I…” (Because what on Earth could convince Gentaro to ever give up on him…?)</p>
<p>“...Huh? I mean, yeah, for sure! But even if what??”</p>
<p>Even if it was weak, it was still half a confession. If Kengo didn’t go through with it now, he didn’t think he ever would. He looked back up at Gentaro, forcing himself to reach a more reasonable volume. “If some of my feelings for you. Were, er, romantic…”</p>
<p>Gentaro was wide eyed in shock for a few seconds before suddenly, loudly, pointing up at himself: “...Eh? For real? Me??”</p>
<p>...<em>Nevermind, this was a mistake. </em></p>
<p>After the surprise faded, it flowed into something more… sheepish? That was always an odd look on Gentaro. Kengo knew what that must mean. “It’s fine, I just needed to tell you, but you don’t need to--”</p>
<p>“--So you wanna try going out then?”</p>
<p>Kengo blinked. Kengo blinked again. “I… no, what? Why would… ”</p>
<p>“Huh? What? I mean, a guy like you, I’m pretty lucky, right? Why on earth wouldn’t I want to give it a shot?” And there was that bright grin of his, shining clear as day, so he must… mean? It?</p>
<p>O-oh. “...Sure.”</p>
<p>“Okay! Cool! Wow!”</p>
<p>(Friendship, romance, despite everything Kengo had convinced himself of, with Gentaro at his side, it somehow turned out to be the last thing Kengo had expected.</p>
<p>Easy.)</p>
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